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Good navigation skills are essential for a safe and successful trip. It is important to know where you're going and how best to get there. Maps can help, provided they're marked correctly.

Items you will need

Street map

Step 1

Obtain a proper map. On a proper street map, north is always "up," the streets are clearly marked and everything is drawn to scale. A map obtained from a business or tourist agency may be far more decorative, but much less accurate. It is OK to have one of these maps, especially if you're looking for certain attractions. Just be sure you have a street map that is drawn to scale to accompany it.

Step 2

Identify the streets. Streets are marked with lines and sometimes symbols that indicate how heavily they are traveled. Major highways will be marked as thick lines and will likely have a large highway symbol. Local arteries will be slightly smaller with a less ornate symbol, and neighborhood roads will be the thinnest lines.

Step 3

Identify the landmarks. Maps use symbols to mark certain points of interest--a picnic table for a park, a red cross for a hospital, a book for a library, a red helmet for a fire station. These may vary from map to map, but every map should have a legend to tell you what the symbols mean.

Step 4

Use the street grid. Some maps have so many streets that it would take quite a while to find the one you want. These maps often have grids and alphabetical street listings to help. For example, let's say you look up London Street in the alphabetical listing, and it has the corresponding coordinates of H-6. Find the H along the lettered axis and the 6 along the numbered access, and trace them both until they meet. This should help you find the location you want.

Tips

While maps will always be useful, they are becoming slightly less common as GPS devices become more affordable and popular. These devices can break and are thrown off-course by bad weather, so map-reading skills can be handy and helpful.

Whenever possible, use a map that is laminated and easy to fold. This will make it last longer, keep it clean and make it easier to store.

References

About the Author

John Zaremba began writing professionally in 1997. He has worked at some of the country's finest small daily newspapers, including "The Beacon News" and "The Patriot Ledger." Zaremba is a graduate of the University of Illinois.

Leaf Group is a USA TODAY content partner providing general travel information. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

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